Won't You Come Home?
by karaleyn
Summary: Usopp-centric, an attempt to give him depth as he tells another tale of adventure one lazy day. PG for mild lang.
1. part 1 Under Blue

**_Won't You Come Home?_**  
_An Usopp-centered ficlet by karaleyn_

**Pairings**: None  
**Spoilers**: None really, though there are vague references that could place this sometime after Loguetown (or Roguetown, whichever you prefer).   
  
**A/N**: Usopp is one of my favorite characters, but then, they all are. I adore him, really. He's such a dork, he's quite often a coward, and yet he has a strength and courage within him that he just doesn't always seem to realize is there. I love his aspiration to be a Great Warrior of the Sea, and his admiration of his father, and his varying skills. I love how he lies so often, and yet, as is said during the focus on him at his village ((the rest of this sentence is a minor spoiler if you haven't seen through Usopp's entrance)), something about how his aspirations, his dreams, are hidden within his lies. I love pretty much everything about Usopp, and would glomp the hell out of that boy if he ever appeared in front of me. But since that's highly doubtful, i'll settle with sulkily writing fanfics of him wherein i try to give him a bit of depth even while i'm falling asleep myself at the keyboard. yay me?

**Disclaimer**: One Piece isn't mine, and thank God! I don't think i'd be half as brilliant as Oda ...though i _do _wish he made things more permanent sometimes. Characters could get the bloody hell beaten out of them and they never seem to have any lasting effects, other than a few examples throughout. But this comment is actually based primarily off the anime... from what i've seen of the manga, it's better at that.

**_ (( Part 1 of 2 ))_**  
  
It was strange how things happened sometimes, Usopp reflected as he crouched lower to his current creation. He had been playing with his chemistry set all morning so far, aside from the time when Nami sweetly requested (ie, _demanded_) that he fix the bathroom's door. It apparently wasn't locking, which became a problem when Sanji almost "accidentally" walked in on Nami while she was getting ready for a bath. That had taken less time than Nami had expected but more than Usopp wanted. He had creations to deal with! Things to do! New bombs to create and weapons to invent! It was a busy day ahead of him and he was hoping to start early. Though he had protested to Nami that he'd like a little help now and then, and why didn't she ask someone else to do her dirty work if she wasn't willing to even do it herself, he was secretly pleased. Though officially he was the Straw Hat Pirate crew's sharpshooter, he liked that he had other jobs too. Carpenter, Ship Repairman, Inventor Extraordinaire, Pachinko Expert, Fearless Crewman! And, not to be forgotten, _Captain_ Usopp! Spinner of tales so tall they eclipsed themselves (though he would never admit it wasn't the 'truth') and doer of the impossible!  
  
Usopp readjusted the magnification on his goggles as he chuckled to himself, leaning in closer to his miniature chemistry set. He needed to be sure this had the right reaction or it'd be another explosion right in his face. He wasn't exactly fond of that sort of end to an experiment, to say the least.  
  
"Usopp!" a cheerful voice said quite suddenly by his ear, and Usopp just managed to catch the tube he was filling before it crashed to the deck and destroyed the last four hours of hard work. Looking over, Usopp narrowed his eyes behind his super spiffy goggles (_best_ 'purchase' of all time!) and regarded the intruder.  
  
"_Luffy_!" Usopp cried, exasperated, "you almost made me drop this!"  
  
Luffy laughed and, dropping to the ground beside his friend, said cheerfully, "Sorry!" in his casual speech. With his legs bent at the knees, his feet clapping absentmindedly, and his arms holding him up in back, Luffy definitely did not look like the impressive pirate worth so many beli. He also didn't look sorry in the least. In reality, he looked more like an average teenager, rather bored but curious, staring at a friend working on homework. Usopp was _far_ more intimidating than Luffy! He was worth just as much, too, given that his head was on the poster for Luffy. Straightening his back in pride, Captain Usopp decided to take a moment out of his busy schedule to regard his crewman.  
  
"What is it?" he asked with magnificent bravery and valor.  
  
Luffy shrugged, feet clapping to a steady rhythm. "Bored. Sanji kicked me out of the kitchen. Whatcha makin'?"  
  
Usopp snorted, amused. Only Luffy would explain his presence by boredom, in conjunction with being kicked out of the kitchen, and so quickly change the subject without realizing it. With most people, the proclamation of 'bored' as a reason to visit him would be insulting, but with this crew and especially Luffy, it was not so much an insult as a way of life. Usopp liked to think that his works of art were so interesting that no one could _possibly_ pay attention to them for long before their brain overloaded. It took only the most stout of mind, body and heart, the strongest of wills and most cunning of determination to understand Usopp and his Inventions! He was a man beyond his years, ahead of his times, and _completely_ indispensable! He was Captain Usopp the _Great_ and he would never forget it so long as he lived! (Except, of course, when he was too scared to remember to do anything but shake. But he would not be contemplating that right now, because Usopp was _never_ scared. He was a Fearless and Great Warrior of the Sea, a second-generation pirate with more stories to tell than the late Gold Roger himself!)  
  
Usopp looked down at his hand and realized he was still holding the tube of purple-ish chemicals, and though barely any time had passed since Luffy's abrupt question, he still hadn't answered it. Well, there was only one way to remedy _that_! With the prospect of explaining another _brilliant_ invention of his to someone, Usopp perked up and began with increasing enthusiasm to answer.  
  
"It's my newest, _great_ invention! With this, I could take over an islan—no, one of the Seas! And," he added as a confidential aside, "in fact, I already have." Pleased to see Luffy's reaction of widening eyes, he continued stoutly, "Three times, in fact! _Thrice_ have the waves of the Seas been ruled by Captain Usopp, and thrice have I prevailed!"  
  
Luffy's feet clapped a little faster as he leaned forward, entranced. "_Really_?" he exclaimed, "_How_? I don't remember hearing about Captain Usopp before I met you! Is that where your hundred million men went?"  
  
"Well," Usopp answered with an air of superiority, "I couldn't _keep_ the Sea under my control, now could I? That would hardly be fair to the native sea creatures already struggling to fund their explorations..." He let it trail off vaguely, as if everyone should know what he was talking about. Some people would nod knowingly at this point, attempting to seem up-to- date, and some others would say immediately that this was nothing but an exaggerated lie, but Luffy was not one of these people and instead he loudly and wide-eyed urged Usopp to continue.  
  
"Well," Usopp said importantly, setting his hands carefully in his lap though he didn't set the chemicals down, "it all began when I met the singing fish, you see. I was four years old, already a Great Warrior of the Sea at that age though I had yet to be a ruler. I was standing on the coast when suddenly I heard a noise and looked down. A mermaid had dragged herself up the beach to my feet, sobbing! Naturally, I knelt down and asked her what was wrong. She answered, but could only sing, because that's what mermaids do, you know. If they tried talking like normal under all that water, the words would disappear. You have to match it to the waves and currents, you see. Synchronize the tone of your voice to the rising and falling of the tides..."  
  
Luffy looked like a little child, eyes wide and envisioning a beautiful world of singing fish and dancing waters. "_Really_?" he breathed, saying louder, "Amazing!" He looked out to the sea briefly, as if looking for a mermaid to be singing right at that moment. In the lull, Zoro peeked his eyes open from his nap and regarded the two while Usopp went back to the story.  
  
"Of _course_!" Usopp answered immediately, "It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? We talk louder when we're up high, on the Crow's Nest for example, for others to hear us, don't we? It's just like that, only by tone." He grinned at Luffy, who was clapping his feet madly.  
  
"What then? What then? When did you rule the Sea? What Sea was it?" Luffy stopped, his eyes shining a little more. "Was it _East Blue_?" he asked, voice quiet like a child asking of fairydust and Happily Ever Afters.  
  
Usopp laughed outright, shaking his head. He carefully set the tubes back in the holding case and pushed his goggles up so he could see better. "No," he chuckled, "not East Blue. Even _better_!" Halfway across the ship, Sanji appeared out of the kitchen door, looking around presumably for Nami. He started to walk, and though he was making no effort to hide the noise of his progress, Luffy was too engrossed in the story to notice that he could be eating at that moment.  
  
"Better than East Blue?" Luffy asked immediately, thinking hard. "Was it... _All_ Blue?"  
  
Usopp shook his head gravely, noting that Sanji had stopped walking by when he heard the name of the paradise he had sworn to find. Usopp spared him a glance before turning back to Luffy and saying solemnly, "No, not All Blue either. That is the dream of someone else, not a past conquest of mine or home of the singing mermaids." Luffy nodded and Sanji got a strange, almost grateful, look on his face in the background before slowly continuing his walk. A few seconds later, it was as if nothing had happened as Sanji's voice could be heard calling out, 'Nami-saaaaan!' as he asked if she wanted anything to drink. Quickly, so as not to lose Luffy's attention, Usopp spoke loudly over Sanji's question to the ship's navigator.  
  
"Not All Blue, but another Blue! Not of the directions North, South, East or West—instead, it was Under Blue the mermaid was from and what I controlled for a day."  
  
"_Under_ Blue?" Zoro said off to the side, snorting to himself with a smirk on his face.  
  
Luffy, however, had a far less skeptical reaction. "_Under_ Blue?!" he practically yelled, then threw his head back and laughed. He clapped his feet again and leaned forward. "What then? Where is it? Tell me, Usopp!"  
  
"Well," Usopp said, back to his important tone, "contrary to the name, Under Blue is actually in the sky." He continued talking past Luffy's gasp and exclamation, 'the SKY?'. "Yes, I know, hard to understand, isn't it? But Under Blue is all of the seas down here—except All Blue because that is its own paradise—as reflected in raindrops in thunderclouds in the sky! All those reflections create a world as translucent as—as—" he groped blindly for the word, both with his mind as with his hands waving ineffectually at the air, "—a _spiderweb_!" he concluded triumphantly.  
  
Zoro laughed shortly at the illogical story, closing his eyes once more though he didn't stop listening. Luffy was even more enthralled with the story, and what was lacking in logic in Usopp's story Luffy made up for in his imagination, filling in the blanks and enriching the world of Under Blue right before his eyes.  
  
-- To Be Continued...  
  
-----------------------  
  
A/N: Sorry, I really need to get to sleep—work early in the morning—and I feel like I'm getting extremely sidetracked with the story of Under Blue. But then again, I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with this other than to focus on Usopp and start to get a feel for his character, so I guess it works.   
  
There will be just one other part of this to finish it off, and then I should be continuing with this same type of thing for each other the characters as I try to figure them out little by little before I get into any actual storylines.  
  
Feel VERY free to express anything you liked/disliked/whatever about this fic! Did I suck at capturing Usopp? Did I get his interactions wrong? I need to watch the series again, or at least revisit some episodes to see interactions, to see how things go again. I'm doing this largely by memory at this point in time, so I probably got it all wrong. Oh well... 


	2. part 2 empty glass

Some real quick notes. Ignore if you want:

**solderini** – WOO! Another Usopp fan! I love that boy; it's great to hear from others who love him too! Thank you for the review, you make me very proud   
  
**Destiny Waterborn** – yeah, you're right, Usopp does tend to stay as a background character, doesn't he? It's too bad, too, since he's such a great guy. Thanks for the review!  
  
**MangoPirate** – I am SO GLAD you mentioned Kaya! I was focusing so much on trying to get Usopp's interactions passable with the crew that I would have managed to forget to include Kaya or any of Usopp's past. Which would have been pretty stupid in this story. So THANK YOU because you were able to get me kicked back into thinking of Usopp in relation to what we know of him, and it was a great help with finishing this little story. Thank you!  
  
**Animefreakperson** - laugh don't worry, I love Chopper too. I just didn't include him because I was trying to keep this fic in a vague area in the series, so people fairly new to the anime could also read it. I know when I was starting out, before I had seen any eps with Chopper in them, I tried very hard not to read any fics with him in it. I guess I was going for that, but no worries! I love that little reindeer and I will definitely have him in other fics, and will probably also have a Chopper-centric fic as well Thank you for the review!  
  
--  
  
**Title**: Won't You Come Home? part 2 – empty glass Author: karaleyn ****

**Spoilers/Warnings**: there's a bit of swearing in this chapter I think, though it's all mild. I was trying to keep this in a vague part of the series so anyone could read it, but in the end I guess I managed to set it after the Arlong arc, and after Loguetown/Roguetown as well. There are just a few references to anything in those areas, and I didn't really put any spoilers in except for mentioning what species Arlong is and vaguely referring to the general feeling Nami would have when hearing his name. The only real spoilers, I suppose, are from Usopp's past. So if you haven't seen/read through when Usopp joins the crew, just know that there are several spoilers for that part of the anime/manga. Oh, this also turned sappier than I was expecting it to 

**Pairings:** none.

**Random**: the title for this story, by the way, came from a combination of a song by Jem and one by Garbage.   
  
_**Comments/constructive criticisms welcome!  
**_  
--  
  
"And the mermaids live in Under Blue?" Luffy asked quickly, not willing to let Usopp slow down on this fascinating story.   
  
"Of _course_ they do, Luffy!" Usopp laughed merrily, "Where _else_ would they live?"   
  
Luffy considered this for a moment, then grinned hugely, his eyes closed happily, his scar a second tiny smile on his face. "Guess nowhere, Usopp!" He paused, then added, "Unless they were lost."   
  
"Luffy, this is _mermaids_ we're talkin' about, not _Zoro_," Usopp teased, then laughed when Luffy burst out laughing.   
  
"That's true, isn't it?" Luffy managed between chortles.   
  
Across the deck, Zoro opened one eye and leveled the two with a Look. "Like you're any better at navigating, Luffy," he grumbled.   
  
"'Course I'm not, Zoro," Luffy cheerfully agreed while he laughed, "that's why we have Nami!"   
  
Nami heard her name and called across the ship, "If any of you are causing trouble I want _no part_ in it! I'm working on a new map!"   
  
"Nami-san is so _diligent_ with her work!" Sanji cried joyfully, flinging himself out of the kitchen with a large glass of a refreshing-looking blue beverage somehow balanced on his flailing tray.   
  
Luffy saw the glass and yelled loudly, "_I_ want a drink too, Sanji!"   
  
"For _you_, Nami-swaan!" Sanji was preening to Nami, and in the same movement glared across the ship at Luffy and yelled, "Then go make it yourself, asshole!"   
  
Nami was soothingly thanking Sanji for the drink which distracted him enough that Luffy was forgotten for the moment. Turning back to face Usopp, Luffy sulked rather dramatically and said loudly back to Sanji, "But I don't _know_ how to make a drink... That's why we have _you_." The chef didn't answer and Luffy was considering his options. Before he got very far, though, Usopp cleared his throat loudly.   
  
"A-_hem_! I was telling a _story_ here?"   
  
Immediately, Luffy perked up. He could get food and a drink later! Right after Usopp was done with the story about the flying singing fish-people!   
  
"So... Is a mermaid married to Arlong?" he asked abruptly, and Usopp stopped, startled. Nami was, luckily, distracted enough that she didn't hear the name.   
  
"Uhhh," Usopp mentally backpedaled, in the space between breaths swiftly creating a new thread of the tapestry of his current embellishment, "no! No, no, of course not. This is a _different_ kind of merperson, these mermaids. They're singing, you know. Different than the mermen—they're, uh, a _special_ breed. You know, the..." He paused briefly for a second, trying to figure out where to go with this. It hadn't occurred to him when he began this story that mer_maid_ could be associated with mer_man_, which was linked to some rather unpleasant memories for some of the crew. Before he had a chance to weave his next web, Zoro abruptly shifted to a more comfortable position and spoke up.   
  
"Think of it like, there's you, and there's Buggy. Both human, completely different people." He yawned widely, grumblingly wishing for some alcohol of some sort. The damn Love Cook had hidden it all the other night—probably to seduce Nami, the dork. Zoro was rather displeased with the whole situation and had decided his best course of action was... to sleep.   
  
"So," Luffy said slowly, considering this new information. He blinked, then grinned widely and slammed one fist into the other palm. "Oh! The mermaids wear makeup! They have red noses?"   
  
Usopp stopped for a moment, then hunched forward and rubbed his forehead. Somehow, telling his patented stories on _this_ ship was a lot harder than he was used to it being... "Uhhh..." he said helplessly.   
  
"Yes, Luffy," Zoro said dryly, sounding amused, "they all have red noses and they sing gospel songs."   
  
Luffy frowned thoughtfully. "I don't remember Buggy singing gospel..."   
  
Zoro started laughing as Usopp waved his hands and said loudly, "That's not the point! The _point_—"   
  
"So you controlled Under Blue for a day after the singing mermaid was crying and then what? What kinda adventures were they going on?" Luffy was back into the story full swing despite his momentary lapse of attention.   
  
Usopp blinked, a little startled that Luffy remembered the earlier detail about the 'natives' engaging in 'explorations,' but he quickly recovered. "Right! So they were trying to dig their way to the ground—"Zoro was down to chuckles in the background. "But I thought they were in the sky," Luffy protested, getting confused.   
  
"Maybe it's _sky_ ground," Zoro answered, now over his fit of laughter. He shifted again, stretching his neck casually back and forth as he tried to get the kinks out.   
  
"What's sky ground made of?" Luffy asked immediately, intrigued.   
  
Zoro shrugged. "Dead lightning bugs?"   
  
"_What_?" Luffy yelped, and Usopp sighed loudly.   
  
"That makes _no sense_, Zoro! Stop distracting my audience!"   
  
"I was a little tired there, Usopp. Missed what you said. _What_ makes no sense?" he deadpanned, looking sidelong at Usopp.   
  
Usopp leaned back and let out a breath. He turned to Luffy to continue, his mouth already open for the next words when he registered Luffy's super shiny eyes.   
  
"Dead lightning bugs? _Amazing_!" he looked up at the sky, staring at the mellow clouds floating by. "And I always thought they looked like marshmallows!"   
  
Zoro snorted, amused. "You _would_," he muttered under his breath, flopping back and closing his eyes decidedly on the day as he prepared himself to sleep. ...Again.   
  
Luffy paused, scrutinizing the puffy clouds, then turning his keen eye on Usopp. "Hey," he said, full of new inspiration. "Is your _hair_ made of dead lightning bugs? It looks a lot like the clouds, only darker..."   
  
"_Hey_," Usopp said, looking put out as he whapped Luffy lightly on the chest with the back of his hand. Zoro, meanwhile, was laughing again, even though his eyes were closed and he otherwise looked like he would be asleep. "What's so funny?" a voice suddenly drawled at their side and Usopp peered up into the sparkling sun to see Sanji hovering over them, a tray filled with four tall beverages that, while less lovingly prepared and gorgeously presented than the one Nami received, still looked rather refreshing and tasty.   
  
"Nothing," Usopp said immediately, still a little taken aback at the idea of his hair being made of dead lightning bugs just because they resembled the clouds. _Damn_ that Zoro for putting weird ideas in peoples' heads! _Especially_ people like Luffy who would make even stranger connections! His hair didn't _really_ look like dead lightning bugs in the sky, did it? No one ever said that to him before. In fact, he was fairly certain Kaya really liked it....   
  
As the other three began bantering—something that, a small part of Usopp's mind noted, seemed to revolve around Luffy laughing a lot and making random observations while Sanji and Zoro had yet another miniature spat—Usopp stared down at the tall glass that had somehow made it into his hands. He stared into the blue drink until his eyes unfocused and the color bled and blended to something resembling grey. This new color reminded him of Kaya's eyes, which made him think of her, which made him think of the way she laughed when he sat in the tree telling her stories of his youth as a Great Warrior of the Sea. He thought of his village, and the villagers, of his Usopp Pirate Crew and what they all must be doing now. Did they miss him? He missed them all, even the villagers who ran him out of town that one day when they thought he had gone too far, betraying Kaya and 'Kurahadol.' He missed Kaya's sunny expression as she threw open the huge windows, her frail body leaning out as the light curtains danced around her in the soft wind. He missed sneaking onto the grounds, and the pride that came with knowing he could out-sneak and outrun _anyone_ in the entire island. He missed the Usopp Pirate Crew, echoing words back to him and all the 'training' they went through. He missed running down that winding country road to skid to a stop in the middle of the village, screaming about pirates.   
  
He missed... his mom. He missed her soft smile, her hand on his head as her fingers comforted him through his thick hair. He missed the weight of her voice, her gaze, her laughter.   
  
...And he missed his father, even if he pretty much only knew him through stories. Stories his mother told him, and, later, Luffy. Usopp glanced at the crew at the thought, his gaze lingering for a moment on his captain. In truth, though he called himself Captain Usopp, though this was Kaya's ship they sailed the seas on, though he had repeatedly introduced himself to strangers as a leader feared by many with hundreds of thousands of men at his ready—in the end, he was Sharpshooter Usopp, and Luffy was Captain Luffy. And it seemed right that way, really. In the end, that seemed the _only_ way.   
  
Just like his father. Usopp was proud, actually, to be holding the same position his father was holding, somewhere out in those wide, choppy waves, rocking on a boat halfway across the world just like he was gently moving on the Going Merry now. Somewhere on the sea, his father was practicing his bravery and aim; somewhere, he was talking to his crewmates and laughing and slapping them on the shoulders and—   
  
And—and here Usopp was, talking and joking with _his_ crewmates. Here Usopp was, drinking a beverage—okay, granted, his father was probably drinking some sort of alcohol but Usopp was underaged, damnit!—and who _knew_ how much their actions were being mimicked right at that moment? Slightly hesitantly, experimentally, Usopp lifted the glass to his lips and started to sip. He imagined his father doing the same thing, only with ale or something in a huge mug, but he couldn't get the image of Zoro downing a freaking _tankard_ of ale in one gulp, and it occurred to him that his father would probably be doing the same. None of this sipping stuff! That wasn't how Warriors of the Sea drank their ale! So Usopp threw his head back and took a huge gulp of the tingling, refreshing drink. He closed his eyes and took another gulp, not bothering to catch his breath or set the glass down. He just took gulp after gulp, eyes squeezed shut on the images he knew would be playing before his eyes, his imagination taking over instead. Now, it was not Zoro and Sanji arguing, but two crewmates from Shanks' crew. Now, it was not Luffy sitting across from him, but Shanks. Now, Usopp was not sitting there alone, but his father was beside him, his arm around Usopp's shoulders as they both drank as quickly as they could, seeing if father or son was the quicker drinker of the family. Usopp gulped faster, noting somewhere in the periphery of his attention that he was running quite low on beverage in his glass, but he ignored it. He was winning. He was winning against his father—or at least, he was catching up. The crew cheered for Yasopp cheerfully, and for a moment Usopp almost faltered, but then he heard his own name being yelled twice as loudly by Luffy, by Zoro and Sanji and Nami who all added their own remarks and asides as they waited with pure belief in him. They didn't need to cheer him on the way Yasopp needed his crew; Usopp knew that, in the end, his crew trusted him. They _trusted him_. They believed in his abilities, they believed in _him_. They knew he would do everything he had to, and he would win, and if he didn't, they wouldn't hate him for it. They may not even tease him. Someone else would just take up the slack and they would continue, just as they had since the haphazard crew had been assembled.   
  
Usopp read a story once about a man that patched together a new creation called Frankenstein. He actually didn't really remember much of the story; maybe he got it wrong. But he felt like this crew was a creation like that—some Frankenstein 'creature' lurching across the seas, somehow stronger and more complete for all its stitches and patchwork.   
  
And that was what was strange about it all, in the end. Though Usopp had spent his life spinning story after story of adventures on the high seas and dangerous escapes back to life, here he was, _living_ those fairy tales. Those dreams within the lies. And he had a family here to take care of him, to worry about him when it anything turned serious, to tease him back to humility from any arrogance he may ever have developed. Here, he had home. A true home that went with him everywhere they went; a home that was defined largely in the mind and spirit and secondly by physical location.   
  
It seemed impossible. To Usopp, who believed nothing was impossible, this crew _did_. How had they gathered together—this mish-mash of personalities and feats, of talents and knowledge, to become a family across the gaps?   
  
It was impossible . But it was real.   
  
_Real_.   
  
If he opened his eyes, if he dropped his hand to his side, he would see the others, he would feel the deck beneath his glass-chilled fingers. He would feel the warm sun against his skin as it hovered indifferently above those clouds, be they made of marshmallows, dead lightning bugs, or, hell, even Usopp's freaking hair. It was real, and it existed, and it wouldn't fade like his stories faded the moment he lost the breath to continue their tale. And none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for a number of strange occurrences and seeming coincidences that led Nami, Zoro and Luffy to become his friends and family, with Sanji tagging along behind not too long after.   
  
It was insane, really.   
  
_Insane_, and Usopp found himself wondering briefly how Kaya would react to him telling the tale of how he became a true pirate, a true Warrior like his father. He imagined her laughing as he relayed anecdotes, and looking suitably enthralled at all the dangerous pivots of the story. But this time, the words had more weight behind them. And this time, he realized his laughter would have been far richer as he explained the events.   
  
Because this time, it was the truth. The Truth. And that made it far more important than any story he would ever have to tell anyone. Though this knowledge would hardly make him stop.   
  
_"Usopp!"_   
  
Usopp blinked his eyes open, realizing his head was still cocked back with the glass at his lips though the liquid was long gone. He tilted his head back down and looked at Luffy, who was staring openly at him, and Sanji, who had remained standing but was quizzically eyeing Usopp. Zoro appeared to be asleep again, though Usopp doubted he actually was.   
  
"Yeah?" Usopp asked back, rather dumbly.   
  
"...You were saying about the mermaids?" Luffy said after a moment, possibly unsure of what else to say. Though, knowing Luffy, that didn't seem right—the boy was amazing at saying exactly what he thought the moment he thought it. A talent, really.   
  
Usopp smiled, rather fondly. "Yeah..." He paused, looking back down at the glass. The very _empty_ glass.   
  
Zoro said something to Luffy but Usopp wasn't listening. He stared at the condensation on the glass and tried to decide if he wanted to continue the story with Luffy, or if he'd rather take this moment of bliss and squirrel it away in his mind where he could pull it out and examine it all on his own with just his chemistry set to absentmindedly interact with him. He had yet to decide when Sanji dropped to a rather elegant sprawl to his side and looked sidelong at the apparently extremely interesting glass held in Usopp's loose grip. In the background, Luffy was saying something back to Zoro and the two began to banter back and forth, with Nami only half- irritatedly yelling something about how loud it always seemed on the ship.   
  
Sanji smiled at Usopp, bringing his current cigarette to his lips and dragging in a breath. He rested his arm over his knee, the cigarette dangling from his fingers, his other knee bent with his leg against the deck as he leaned on his other hand. He stared at the blue sky, blue like precious gems standing out beautifully against a gorgeous woman's skin, and exhaled slowly. "You really drank that down fast, huh?" he said conversationally, and somehow Usopp knew they weren't talking about the drink.   
  
Usopp smiled with one side of his mouth, feeling amused yet solemn at the same time. "Not _that_ fast," he replied, thinking that it certainly took him awhile to realize some of this stuff.   
  
Sanji let out a soft half-laugh and answered, "Fast enough."   
  
There was companionable silence that was interrupted by a sudden loud _crash_ as Luffy realized that with Sanji out of the kitchen, the food was fair game. And, in the midst of his gomu gomu no rocketo, he managed to catch Zoro, sending the resting swordsman flying several feet to crash back down to the deck. Zoro jumped up, yelling furiously at Luffy who was laughing and apologizing with a blithely unapologetic tone and body language. Nami was yelling again about the noise level and Zoro was loudly protesting the frequent interruptions of his naps via flying through the air and slamming into something hard. All the noise seemed in the distance, however, as Usopp stared at the glass contemplatively.   
  
Sanji took another calm drag of his cigarette before shoving himself to his feet, looking down at Usopp. "So," he said, holding his hand out for the empty glass, "what'd you think?"   
  
Usopp smiled at the glass, and it was a soft, wondrous expression. He looked back up at Sanji and held the glass up for it to be taken with the others back to the kitchen to get washed.   
  
"It was delicious, Sanji. Thank you."   
  
Sanji grinned, immensely pleased and almost boyish for the fact. "That's _exactly_ what I like to hear."   
  
**_The End_**


End file.
